All 21.0 - Coronation of the Dragon King
After four long days and nights on the Gunakadeit, the group landed on the shores of Eshbol, the country southeast of Ursialla. The boat dock, like the last one, seemed to have been picked over by archeologists and abandoned; Pierce spent the first day constructing a LT station, as the last one had certainly come in handy. The next day saw the whole group set out into the warm, jungle lands of Eshbol, riding on summoned horses down narrow dirt paths, barely carved out of the forest. There were no permanent settlements, no taverns or inns to mark their progress, as the people of Eshbol preferred semi-nomadic lives in small bands and tribes, leaving only the odd public campsites here and there for the group to use. One night, on their way to Inversheil, one of the few large permanent cities in the area, they crossed paths with a pair of travelling traders, a human and an orc. They shared a campfire that night, and the group had a pleasant chat with them about the area and their journeys; the Mirilarins all avoided discussing the severe nature of their quest, and the precise distance from which they had come. Seven nights on the road finally brought them to the city of Inversheil: a city that, though not as large as Kalleandar or Engiadina, had a unique and grand nature to it given its construction. A huge stepped pyramid, with a worn, abstract monument at its peak stood in the center; around it were three smaller, yet no less stately, pyramids, and among them all were many small individual buildings of stone. As they split up and began to explore the city, Lucca, Cheko and Cress asking about the town, Clover and Ryuji approaching the central pyramid for more information, and the others shopping and generally poking about, they learned that the gnollish inhabitants, while not unfriendly, had strict rules of conduct: outsiders were not allowed into any of the pyramids without express permission and escorts, as required by religious laws. Clover and Ryuji, learning this from some attendants, made an appointment to speak with a representative the next day to make their case about the All and the echo, which they assumed was located in the central pyramid's peak, where the remains of the Dragon King supposedly lay. When the time came for the meeting, Pierce joined the other two and made an eloquent arguement, supported by the others, for accessing the inner shrine. It was well-recieved: the representative took their assertations about the All seriously, and though they hadn't heard any reports of similar creatures, they would certainly warn the appropriate people and see if anyone else had reported the alien creatures or their disturbing beacons. In regards to the tomb of the Dragon King, the representative agreed to see if she could grant them permission to enter the shrine; however, she warned them that the resting place itself was locked behind a door that would only open when the worthy inheritor of the title of king appeared to break the seal and lead his people to the Second Age, and even if, somehow, they opened it, only the heir and three attendants could enter, as per the holy scriptures, so the rest would have to wait outside. Accepting this generous offer, they were told to wait in town until the proper permissions and preperations could be made. It took five days and nights before the group was admitted into the central pyramid and taken to the central shrine at its peak. Everyone except Carrot was present; even Virgil was permitted to come, as the inhabitants all agreed that the pyramid, including the shrine, was perfectly safe: well-guarded and continuously staffed. The priests paid little mind to the tourists, accompianied as they were with guards, and they continued about their prayers and activities. Everyone was brought into the circular room; there were four different altars, arranged about the room with space around each for reverents to kneel and sit. At the very center, inset in the floor, was a round, carved stone panel with ancient writings and a magic aura. Apparently this was the door that sealed the king's tomb. The group was given leave to investigate at their leisure. The ancient writings were interspersed with arcane runes, making it very difficult to translate; Pierce, wearing Lucca's helm, was the most qualified to try and understand their meaning. Eventually, he determined that it was part prophetic story, part spell: it spoke of the Dragon King, his exploits, and that upon his death he had no heir, but he promised to return to lead his people once more. The spell locked access to the tomb until an arcanist with the Dragon King's soul arrived to open it; it further stipulated that, once they were to enter the tomb past the door, only three attendents could join them. Everyone else agreed that it was obviously Pierce's job to open the door, him being the only 'real' arcanist, once discounting Cohen's bastardized alchemical magic. Unfortunately, the seal stimied Pierce, who sat considering it for hours; he only ever got as far as the notion that he had to display power and have the correct soul. Eventually, his frustration mounting progressively, people began telling him to channel his ascendant power, to which he replied irritably that he had no idea how to do that. After enough nagging and lack of progress, he snapped: yelling, he punched the door. As he did this, the bright glow of power came from him as it did when an ascendent used their power, and it spread into the door, activating it and causing it to slide into the floor, revealing a spiral staircase leading downwards. The act of channelling the power, as it seemed to have a tendency to do, had altered Pierce: as the power flowed from him, his hair had lengthened and stood upwards, as though charged with electricity, and had changed to a brilliant sapphire blue. Once the moment had passed, his hair fell limp again, but remained blue and now hung around his neck. Though the power had left, Pierce's agitation had not: he groused at his hair, snapped at the others, and quickly selected the three people that would go with him: Cohen, who was the only one who apparently knew how to disarm traps and locks; Lucca, as he was a well-rounded adventurer with healing magics and the mirror they needed to access the echo, and; Clover, because he wanted a powerful combatant to round out the team and, as he explained loudly and bluntly, Victor's dance-like style was more about defense than actually hitting people, and Ryuji, who would generally be a good choice, was still very dodgy and secretive about his actual abilities and he didn't want to bank on someone who's skills were only half-established. Cohen explained that he'd have to go buy tools first if he was expected to be a locksmith, so he walked out with one of the guards. While they waited for his return, they noticed the priests who had watched this and were continuing to stare with poorly disguised shock, wonder, confusion and excitement. Though it seemed that a few of them had run off, probably to go tell others, none openly spoke to the outsiders. When Cohen returned a short while later, he was now in the possession of a rather nice lockpicking kit and had shifted himself to a younger appearance, now looking barely thirty; he explained that if he was going to do something generally reserved for dumb kids, he may as well look the part. With his return, Pierce, Lucca, Clover and Cohen descended the stairs, leaving Cheko, Ryuji, Victor and Virgil to wait at the top with the priests. At the bottom of the stairs, in the secret heart of the pyramid, they found a huge empty room, with pillars and ledges jutting up awkwardly from the floor and walls. On the far side was a large door with further engravings; Pierce decoded them as more tales of the Dragon King. Cohen examined the locking mechanism, and found it to be non-magical; a series of buttons, levers and pull-chains needed to be activated in unison to open the door. In all, they found 15 triggers hidden about the room, some almost utterly inaccessible without flight: an impossible task for four people without magic. Deciding to chance the body limit wouldn't be violated with summons, Pierce magically called a large number of gorillas to stand or pull on the switches, some being aided into position by the magically-flighted Clover and Lucca. When all was ready, the triggers were pulled, and the door opened. Dismissing the apes, Pierce called Sienna, explained the situation, and the group walked into the tomb. The room was tall, obviously taking up a significant central area in the pyramid. A raised dias stood in the center with stairs leading up to a sarcophagus; trenches and pits lined the rest of the room, filled with dust. Based on what they had heard about the practices here, they surmised that it was the ashen remains of priests and leaders, cremated and funneled here to rest with their king through small chutes in the walls. Avoiding the piles of dust, they climbed the stairs. At the top was an ornate sarcophagus, with a carved relief of refined yet powerful-looking gnoll. Outfitting themselves with magical enhancements, they drew the magic mirror, allowing them to see the shimmering sparkles that marked an echo, like they had in the Vilkas Mountains. Peering into the mirror, they were transported to the Astral Plane. Once the transfer was complete, they found themselves in the same room, back at the bottom of the stairs. There was no dust, and the sarcophagus was replaced with what appeared to be a throne shaped as a large, life-like curled dragon. Sitting cradled on the dragon's limbs was a gnoll, wearing splendid finery and looking down on them with derision. He declared that, should an heir be declared, they must prove themselves: he stood, and what they had mistook for a chair stood up as well. Pierce muttered that the creature was not what it appeared to be: it was an eidolon. Sienna agreed, and without waiting for further invitation, Clover and Sienna both dashed forwards, weapons raised. They stabbed at the Dragon King, who climbed up onto the dragon's back as it took to the sky. Pierce cast Slow, trying to hamper the mythical beast and its master, as Cohen shot from a distance. It appeared that any attack that was hurting one of the pair was being directed to the other, protecting both the king and the dragon from taking lethal damage. Offended at the assault, panels opened up in the walls at the king's whistle, and four gnoll warriors ran out, penning in Lucca and attacking him and the doctor. Clover continued assaulting the eidolon while Sienna pulled back, readying against the warriors while Pierce continued casting and Cohen retreated up the stairs. Using his belt to transform into a large earth elemental, Lucca began to fight off the spear-wielding gnolls, who were quickly joined by a summoned triceratops. The dragon, for its part, shook off the slowing effect with the help of a Haste from its summoner and turned its full attention to Clover, attacking her and grabbing her in its powerful jaws. Before she could shake it off, it wrenched her off the ground, and her allies could only watch in horror as Clover was swallowed whole. Everyone's attention turned to the dragon as Clover managed to cut a hole in the reptilian eidolon's gullet, pulling herself free. Seeing the opening, Sienna dashed forwards and, with a mighty leap, lunged off of the platform and drove her glaive into the eidolon with such force that it appeared to knock out both the dragon and its rider. As her and the gnoll pitched towards the ground, the echo vision ended, and everyone found themselves standing around the sarcophagus once more, injured and out of breath. Filled with the rush of battle, Sienna and Clover yelled and exulted, while Lucca attended to the wounded. Meanwhile, Pierce's attention was captured by the fancy pair of bracers that had appeared on his forearms, one white and one black, both engraved and enchanted heavily. Cohen said dryly that they may as well open the sarcophagus, since they were there and resources were what they were looking for. Inside were the remains of a humanoid, long dried to dust and only hinted at by the placement of the still-perfect adornments that had once been worn. Preserved by powerful enchantments, the outfit was garish by their standards, but obviously meant for a king, considering the richness of colour and sheer amount of gold. Under the remains was a pile of pure gold pieces, easily worth tens of thousands. Despite his protestations, Clover and Lucca agreed that Pierce had to put on the outfit: they had gone down to prove Pierce's succession of the throne, so he had to play the part. Taking over as a king did not sit well with the businessman, but he still submitted to their assertions while Cohen went back up the stairs to borrow a bag of holding for the gold. Once dressed, looking somewhat ridiculous in the vestments, his torso bare and wearing a giant feathered headdress, Pierce and the others began to climb back up. Pierce fretted, worried about the impact this would have on the country if he was crowned a king, what the ramifications would be for him and for the people of Eshbol, but the other three waved off his fears: it wouldn't do to not play it through now, not after they had opened the door and gone down. Wearing the angel's halo, Clover flew out into the shrine room, now packed with priests and other anxious observers, waiting to see the outcome. With a flourish, she announced Percival Webber, the new Dragon King, who stepped out with a refinement and assuredness that his compatriots knew was nothing but show. After a few seconds of silence, there was pandemonium as the Invershians began celebrating: Pierce and Sienna, once her status as the king's eidolon was established, were swept up and carried away. Clover began to follow, but her way was barred as only those properly ordained could pass into the chambers where they had taken the summoner. The remaining adventurers were told that, as compatriots of the king, they would be given the best treatment they could offer, but they were still not allowed on holy ground. Agreeing that Pierce was unlikely in any danger, they accepted the situation, and were taken to a different floor of the pyramid, where they were given a hall of lush rooms for their personal use, and offered any luxury they could ask for. Another five full days were spent in Inversheil, taking advantage of the hospitality. Pierce was absent for all but his coronation ceremony, which was held two days after he had emerged from the tomb and during which he gave a rather stirring and confidence-inspiring speech. On the night of the fifth day however, he teleported into Clover and Cheko's room and told them he had to get out of there: he seemed panicky and stressed, overwhelmed by the situation. After ascertaining that there was no immediate danger, Clover agreed to have everyone ready to leave the next morning. Most were happy to be going, as nearly a month had been spent in Eshbol at this point; few were happier than Lucca, who knew all too well that the full moon was in but a few nights. They left the next morning by Teleport, brought in two groups by Pierce back to the Gunakadeit, where they took the day checking things over and getting settled once more. On the next day, Lucca, Cohen, Victor, Clover and Pierce teleported to a certain spot told to the summoner by one of the gnolls, who had reported seeing a strange thorny creature with a single eye: one of the beacons of the All. Indeed, they found the creature at the location, staring flatly into space, but almost assuredly watching. Everyone poked, hit and prodded it to their satisfaction, finding that it couldn't be moved or damaged at all. When they were done, Victor channelled his ascendent power and sliced it easily in half. Seconds after it fell into lifeless, hollow pieces, two creatures appeared: the Aspects known as Piece and Fraction. A short conversation was had: Fraction identified them as the "5/7ths" of the ones who had "broken Complete", and Piece wanted to know why they resisted so strongly. Clover and Lucca were the only ones who replied, stating their rather violent and vehement beliefs that the All would leave or be destroyed. Fraction declared that the group of them would be made much higher priority, while Piece seemed sad that they continued their struggle, despite the All's intention to bring unity and peace; both agreed that it should be Shard and Shred dealing with them in the future, as they were much too violent and non-sensical for the pair of them to comprehend. With that, the two vanished, just as Clover and Lucca prepared to attack them. Unsettled, the five returned to the boat. The next three nights were those of the full moon, and left much of the group exhausted the following days. Regardless, Pierce left each morning, returning to Inversheil to discuss matters and settling how the monarchy would run while he continued to quest to stop the All, a matter that the Invershians agreed was of grave importance. It was broadly agreed that the stewards, who had administrated everything for centuries, would continue their tasks, and Pierce would communicate and arrive as much as possible. Though he tried to argue the decision, the priests insisted that Pierce bring a scribe with him to record his deeds, and so Itzli, the gnoll scribe, joined the group. It wasn't until the 3rd of Elul that the group was ready to travel again. Category:Advent of the All